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G20 engagement

For the co-operative movement to flourish, the world’s largest economies need to recognise and support the contributions of co-operatives to sustainable development. With this goal in mind, the Alliance participates in the Business 20 (B20), a group of business leaders that makes recommendations to the G20 for strong, sustainable and balanced growth in the global economy.

The Alliance coordinates the co-operative delegation and ensures that co-operatives are represented on all B20 Taskforces: Financing Growth, Infrastructure, Trade and Investment, Employment and SME Development.

Co-operatives have two main messages for G20 governments:

Co-operative enterprises are important drivers of sustainable and inclusive growth and decent work.

The policy and regulatory environment should be conducive to the establishment and development of co-operative enterprises, which help create economic opportunities for entrepreneurs, youth, women and smallholder producers.

In 2016, the B20 is hosted by China and will be hosted by Germany in 2017. The B20 Germany Taskforces will be Digitalization; Employment & Education; Energy, Climate & Resource Efficiency; Financing Growth & Infrastructure; and Trade & Investment. There will also be two cross thematic groups: Responsible Business Conduct & Anti-Corruption; and SMEs.

If you are a co-operative leader in a G20 country and want to participate, contact Fran McCrae.

Success of B20 China engagement

Thanks to continued participation in the B20 China proceedings, the co-operative delegation succeeded in securing several references to co-operatives in the final documents of the B20.

“Forming a cooperative allows costs and risks to be mutualized across all stakeholders providing the ability for innovators and entrepreneurs to scale quickly and overcome the burdens associated with the transition to an SME."

“Governments should address [the] high failure rates [of start-ups] by providing access to support and finance mechanisms – such as early stage finance, access to social support, access to knowledge and resources, and encouraging entrepreneurs to start cooperative enterprises and use digital tools”.